Insecure Writers Want to Know
Hello and welcome to Adventures in Writing! Please look around my website and tell me what you think. I am delighted to be one of the cohosts this month for Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
So, in answer to our June question, my fiction story ideas usually come from my many family camping adventures with our five kids. You can read some of our many camping adventures at Camping with Five Kids.
I create contemporary fiction grounded in reality. Most times, my story begins in nature, in a park I’ve hiked and explored personally. Then I ask, “what if my character becomes lost out here?” Or injured? What if danger presents itself at every turn? What if that person, who is physically lost, is also dealing with internal strife?
This is that internal and external conflict that I always discuss in my writing workshops. To make a story unputdownable, a writer must create conflict for their characters. Something is troubling them on the inside. A relationship. A belief. A way of looking at life. A problem. Then I place the character in a dangerous situation. A snow-covered mountaintop with the black of night approaching. A churning river into which someone tumbles from a canoe.
We want our readers to empathize with our characters. They don’t need to like the character necessarily. But they do need to care about the protagonist, the main character. If readers don’t care about our protagonist, it doesn’t matter what happens in your plot, your external conflict. Readers want to connect with a sentient being before they care about the story. A protagonist with troubles, just like the reader. We want an emotional connection between the reader and our character. Then the reader cares what happens to the character.
So, my local library has asked for a few more writing workshops. One in August, one in October, and then one in November. I’ll provide more details once they become available.
I also sold another personal essay to Business Insider. This one is about caring for my sister-in-law as she enters a new stage in her life. I’ll let you know when it is published online.
Now I’m off to see where YOUR story ideas come from. Happy Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day, everyone!
Thank you for stopping by my little spot on the web. Please come again! And please sign up for my FREE monthly newsletter to find tips on writing and camping. It’s greatly appreciated.
This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I’d like to thank my co-hosts for June: Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and C. Lee McKenzie! Please visit them if you can.
Our group posts on the first Wednesday of every month. To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.
As much as your family went camping, you had a lot to draw from.
Yes I do, Alex. So many adventures in national and state parks. Thanks for stopping by Adventures in Writing and leaving a note. Happy Insecure Writers Support Group day!
It’s all about those characters, isn’t it? Loved reading how you start your stories and then put your characters into situations that engage the reader.
Thank you, Lee. Finding trouble for our characters is important. Both internal and external conflict. Happy IWSG day!
Congratulations on your pending publication. 😊
I love the idea of imagining your characters in a place where you’ve been.
Thank you, Jamie. Yes, I love getting my characters into trouble. It makes for a better story. Happy IWSG day!
Great tips on creating conflict. So much inspiration to be had from nature. And so much that could go wrong!
So true, Nick. A lot of things can go wrong out in the wilds of nature. Thank you for your kind words. Have a great day!
I agree you have to like the protagonist. I am not going to waste my time with someone I don’t like. I had to put a best seller down for that reason.
The reader needs to care for your protagonist. Otherwise, why read the story. Thanks for visiting Adventures in Writing, Liza. Happy IWSG day!
It’s cool that you’ll be teaching more classes at your library. I just read a book where I didn’t like the protagonist. It was very hard to finish. I agree that you need to like the protagonist.
Liking the protagonist makes the reader want to find out what happens to him or her. The story is more enjoyable.
Always a pleasure seeing you here at Adventures in Writing, Natalie. Have a great day!
First, thanks for hosting,
Secondly , congratulations on coming publication. and always, thanks for your inspirational example, .
Next week, I’m off to a writer’s festival, in Scotland, which is just over the not very far away Border, Camping, of course, and the weather looks interesting, Will the rain drown the midges > ,
I chickened out of reading my contribution to this year’ s anthology, convinced I couldn’t do justice to the SEAL we met on an icy Borders cliff.
Thank you for your kind words, Esther. I truly appreciate them.
And wow! You are going to Scotland for a writers’ festival? Lucky, lucky you. Even if it does rain while you are camping. I can’t tell you how many times it has rained while we camped in a tent. Nuts!
Enjoy your festival.
I just got done reading some short stories written by kids. There was plenty of conflict, but it also needs to lead somewhere. LOL (Seriously, though, the kids did great for their ages.)
Thanks for co-hosting.
I love reading stories created by kids, Melissa. And yes, the younger ones tend to forget about the “beginning, middle, and end” part of story writing. It’s fun to help them understand that the story needs to go somewhere. Enjoy your day!
It’s SO true! I just got done with a book club book and it was horrible. You were following 8 different characters and I really couldn’t connect with any of them. *sigh* It’s the reason we are supposed to follow just one to two strong characters, ideally, eh?
Yes, Crystal. It is best to be in one or two strong characters’ heads to be deeply immersed in the story. Thank you for sharing your insight here at Adventures in Writing. Happy IWSG day!
Love that you get ideas from nature!
That’s so true that readers need to connect with the protagonist.
Thanks for co-hosting!
I love nature. And thanks for your kind words, Sarah. Happy IWSG day!
I love how life feeds my fiction, too. @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
It is so true, Samantha. Life does feed our fiction. Thanks for your blog link. Happy IWSG day!
HI,
I find that your ideas, coming from your family outings or camping trips, are fantastic. Thank you for co-hosting.
Shalom Shalom
Thanks, Pat. True life can offer such great story ideas if we only ask “what if.” Have a beautiful day!
Well said. And congrats on the writers workshops!
Thank you, Jacqui. I appreciate your kind words. I love teaching writing. Happy IWSG day!
As much of my adult life as I’ve spent camping, hiking, and backpacking, it’s kind of odd that I’ve not yet managed to put that into any books. Maybe a little bit in some short stories. I do think out a lot of my plots while on the trail.
Oh wow, Rebecca! I think about my stories and any ideas I have for personal essays while I’m hiking or camping as well. It’s a perfect quiet time to think about writing, or even life. Stay strong!
I know I’m in the minority here, but I need to like the characters I read about. Otherwise, I’m not interested and more often than not don’t finish reading their stories. It is like in my real life: if I don’t like someone, I don’t want to spend time with them.
So true, Olga. Why spend time with someone you don’t like. I only like to read about characters I like, too. However, on a whole, readers don’t NEED to like the characters to see what happens to them. Thanks for visiting Adventures in Writing. Have a great day!
Congrats on your Business Insider piece and all those workshops! I think that sounds so fun to teach others about your process. I am also often inspired by nature or places I’ve been. And no matter what, there’s always an animal in my books.
Thanks, Jenni. I do enjoy teaching others about writing. Nature and places I have been top the list of inspiration for settings for my stories. Readers love having animals present in stories. Great idea!
Five kids would bring drama and action into any event. Lucky you to have so much inspiration and love all in one place. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words, Anna. Oh yes! Never a dull moment in my crazy life. Not with five kids. Lots and lots of inspiration there. Have a great day!
Thanks for co-hosting today, Victoria! And congratulations on selling your essay to Business Insider and more library events. Happy creating in June!
Thank you, Louise. And “happy creating in June” to you, too. Stay strong!
What a terrific post! I like the idea of putting characters in familiar places. Thanks to you, maybe I’ll let more of mine bump into a few things 🙂 Thank you for co-hosting.
Thank you, Diedre. Placing our characters in familiar places helps us to immerse the reader because we know where we are. Literally. Thanks so much for reading. Have a great weekend!
Congratulations on being picked up for library workshops!
Thank you, Shannon. I love teaching writing. Have a great weekend!
Thank you for sharing your very helpful and busy writing life. I appreciate your energy, productivity, and willingness to share what you’ve learned with others. Yes, like plot twists, life presents us with challenges, but we will persevere! Write on!
Thank you, Beth, for your kind words. Sharing what we learn in writing is what Insecure Writers is all about. And yes. Life certainly presents us with many challenges. We do need to persevere. Have a great day!
Thanks for co-hosting today!
Most of my story ideas come from dreams. I used to frequently have adventure type dreams where I save the world. It was so frequent that it made me wonder if my subconscious was trying to tell me something. If I had some save the world, hero complex.
Hello and welcome to Adventures in Writing, Lidy. I am so glad you are here.
So interesting that your ideas come from dreams. I can’t really remember my dreams. Not in any detail. And most times, my dreams don’t make sense. More power to you, Lidy!
I wish we had camped with our kids, but they were grown when we started camping. We full-timed for 8 years plus. We camped with our grandkids and they loved our adventures together. Congratulations on your successful writing career and upcoming projects! Thanks for co hosting.
Thank you for your kind words, Jan. So neat that you camped full-time for a while. Where was your favorite place to visit or stay?
And good for you enjoying camping adventures with your grandkids. We are just starting to get our grandkids interested in camping. Have a beautiful day!
Thank you for co-hosting the IWSG this month and for insights into how you get the spark for your stories.
Hello and welcome to Adventures in Writing, Kalpana. I am so glad you are here. Yes, I love using the parks we have visited as settings for my stories. And with five kids, I always have ideas for my fiction.
Thanks again for visiting. Please come again!
Thanks to you and the others for co-hosting!
I’m sure there’s a lot of adventurous stories a person can get from their camping experiences! We need more adventurous such as the ones you talk about.
Hello and welcome to Adventures in Writing, Steven. I am so glad you are here. Adventures abound everywhere. Not just in nature. Life is full of adventure. We just need to look for them.
Thanks again for visiting. Please come again!
I am not a camping person. The last time I went, my mom broke her knee and we had to brace her leg with tent poles and my boxing wrist wraps. Reality was traumatizing enough that I don’t think I’d want to visit it in a story.
Thanks for co-hosting!
Oh wow! I am so sorry about your mother, Loni. That’s terrible. That hurts just thinking about it. And I so agree that reality can be traumatizing. I, also, don’t need to read about the scary/sad things in life.
Thank you so much for visiting Adventures and Writing and leaving a note. Please stop by again!
Congrats on the Business Insider essay!
Thank you, Ronel! I appreciate it. Stay strong, dear friend.